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orgia
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 19 No. 44
Thursday, December 10,1981
$8.00 per year
Survey To Measure
Catholic High School
Support, Enrollment
BY FATHER RICHARD KIERAN
Secretary for Education
The Archdiocese of Atlanta is
undertaking a feasibility study
regarding the development of Catholic
high school education in the Atlanta
metropolitan area. This study is being
conducted by the Department of
Catholic Education with the
assistance of a task force of educators
and planners. This study will assist the
Archdiocese of Atlanta in determining
the potential for the development of
Catholic high schools.
Sample Form, Page 6
A survey of all the Catholic families
in the seven-county, Atlanta
metropolitan area and Fayette
County is planned in order to obtain
data regarding potential enrollment
and support for Catholic high school
education. This survey will take place
after all the Sunday liturgies on the
weekend of December 19-20. Each
family is asked to have one member
complete the survey form.
The survey form has been prepared
by experts in this field. The responses
to it are anonymous. The returns will
be processed and analyzed by
computer. The results of the survey
will be published in The Georgia
Bulletin.
Because of the importance of this
survey in determining priorities for
the Archdiocese of Atlanta over the
next five to 10 years, every Catholic
family in the Atlanta metropolitan
area is asked to complete a survey
form. It is important that both those
who are in favor and those who are not
in favor of developing Catholic high
school education complete the survey.
A copy of the survey form is
printed on Page 6 of this edition of the
Georgia Bulletin so families may study
it and be prepared to respond after the
Sunday liturgies on December 19-20.
Pope Asks Equality
For Women Workers
STREET PEOPLE REMEMBERED -
Protesting the plight of the homeless, Washington’s
Community for Creative Non-Violence has erected
tents and 45 small crosses in Lafayette Park across
from the White House to memorialize people who
have frozen to death on Washington streets since
1976. The group set up the tents to shelter the
homeless during the cold season and plans to leave
them and the crosses there for the remainder of
winter.
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope John
Paul II called for legislation
recognizing the equality of men and
women workers but said women who
choose to remain at home with their
families should face no discrimination
from society.
In his Dec. 6 Angelus talk to about
30,000 people in St. Peter’s Square,
the pope reiterated the teachings of
his third encyclical, “Laborem
Exercens” (“On Human Work”), and
other church documents on the
theme.
Pope John Paul dedicated his entire
10-minute talk to the topic, which he
said “has acquired a particular
importance in our times.”
He urged the formulation of “a
social legislation which recognizes the
equality of men and women workers,”
yet protects for women the right to
working conditions in accord with
their duties as wives and mothers.
“It is necessary to build a society in
which the woman can attend to the
Report On Priest’s Role In Lay Groups:
Not Manager, Not Individual Member
BY NANCY FRAZIER
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Priests
who are chaplains to lay Catholic
organizations must not be the groups’
“managers” nor individual members
indistinct from the others in the
group, according to a new document
from the Pontifical Council for the
Laity.
It also said that democratic
methods such as parliamentary
procedures are not necessarily the best
SISTER BARBARA LUPO:
In Death, Missionaries
Pricked U.S. Conscience
BYGRETCHEN REISER
For 15 years, Sister Barbara Lupo
was a Maryknoll missioner in the
Philippines. Now she is a missionary in
the United States, in a sense, trying to
communicate a vision of the injustice
she came to know in another part of
the world.
“To tell you the truth, it’s a lot
harder” than her earlier work, she
said, explaining that the post she has
held for the past three years as
national co-director of Clergy and
Laity Concerned is “considered
extremely missionary in the scope of
Maryknoll.” In Atlanta last week, she
spoke in several forums, marking the N *''*
first anniversary of the deaths of four
U.S. women missionaries in El
Salvador. The two Maryknoll
missionaries slain, Sister Maura Clarke
and Sister Ita Ford, were'her friends,
remembered vividly and quickly for
their many gifts, both missionaries,
but also a poetess and a wit: “They
manifested a joy, a compassion, a
wisdom,. . . They were remarkable their deaths found hope in the
followers of Christ.” knowledge that the slayings of the
In the year that has passed since the four women penetrated the
two and Ursuline Sister Dorthy Kazel consciences of many Americans,
and lay volunteer Jean Donovan were “Their life made an impact on the
slain, “our government has attempted people of El Salvador,” she said, “and
very, very much to negate the deaths their death made an impact here.”
of these women,” Sister Barbara Lupo While thousands of people have
said. died in El Salvador in the past few
The four were killed after their van years, “as soon as Americans were
was intercepted Dec. 2,1980, near the killed, there was a certain horror in it.
airport outside the Salvadoran capital It touched our pride,” she reflected,
of San Salvador. Public response, particularly in the
According to reports from El form of congressional petitions, has
Salvador, six members of the affected the amount of military aid
Salvadoran National Guard were sent to El Salvador, she said. “A lot
detained last April as suspects, but no more aid would have been going down
charges are reported to have been filed there and there would have been even
against them. Military aid to El more deaths.”
Salvador from the United States was Her view of the United States’
temporarily suspended at the time of effect abroad is harsh, but shaped, she
the slayings, but was later reinstated says, by the love she’s always had for
and increased under the Carter and this country and the love she grew to
Reagan administrations. Several share with the poor in the Philippines.
Reagan administration officials also While Americans are extremely
questioned the motives and actions of generous to people in need, she said,
the slain missionaries, but later the poverty that she lived with had its
restated their remarks. roots in injustice and so the mission
In an interview, Sister Barbara she now pursues is to tell Americans of
Lupo said that her reflection upon (Continued on page 2)
V*.
form of reaching decisions in church
organizations.
The document emphasized that
within church groups God does not
work through “agreements reached by
a vote,” but by common consensus
achieved through prayer and mutual
discernment of the will of God.
In a 52-page study document,
“Priests Within Associations of the
Faithful: Identity and Mission,” the
council discusses the role of
ecclesiastical assistants, who often use
the titles “spiritual advisor” or
“chaplain,” and the purpose and goals
of lay organizations. It was published
to promote discussion of the issues
and is not a definitive document of the
council.
The document said that priests
must be spiritual guides for the
organizations, serving as “architects of
communion, educators in faith,
witnesses to God’s absoluteness, true
apostles of Jesus Christ, ministers of
sacramental life, especially of the
Eucharist.”
“In the postconciliar renewal, the
church had to overcome certain
problems about the distribution of
duties between priests and lay
people,” said Guzman Carriquiry, a
Uruguayan member of the council
staff, Dec. 3.,
“Now things are more serene,” he
added. “But the problem still has
arisen in lay organizations of a
priest-chaplain leading the whole
group, for example, or seeing himself
as just another member.”
The document, dated Aug. 4 and
released at the Vatican Dec, 3, was
prepared after a lengthy consultation
with ecclesiastical assistants working
at the diocesan, national and
international levels with Catholic
organizations or movements.
According to Guzman Carriquiry,
the groups to whom the document is
directed include charitable agencies
such as Caritas, Catholic professional
organizations of doctors or lawyers,
federations of students, teachers or
workers, family and marriage
movements, and spirituality
movements such as charismatic
renewal groups.
West German Bishop Paul Cordes,
vice president of the council, declined
to estimate the number of lay
Catholics belonging to such
associations, noting that in the United
States alone the National Council of
Catholic Women represents 10 million
people.
Regarding the internal operations
of lay organizations, the document
said:
“The internal construction of the
church is not carried ou( in
accordance with the usages of the
parliamentary system . . . even if the
democratic model can teach us
something useful for the internal life
of the church.”
“If members of church
communities, meeting together in
associations, were to consider
themselves as members of a
parliament, and if the church
communities within the local or
universal church were to consider
themselves as parliamentary-type
interest groups, on the model of
political parties, they could not but
conceive their life as a church from the
viewpoint of temporal power,” it
added.
Commenting at a press conference
(Continued on page 6)
formation of her children, who are the
protagonists of the future society,”
Pope John Paul said.
But, he added, “this does not mean
the exclusion of women from the
world of work or from social and
public activity.”
Quoting from his encyclical, the
pope said that “the true promotion of
the woman requires that work be
structured in such a way that she must
not pay for her own promotion with
the abandonment of her own specific
role and at harm to the family, in
which she has as mother an
irreplacable role.”
“In a society which seeks to be just
and human it is absolutely necessary
that the spiritual and material
demands of the person occupy the
first place in the hierarchy of values,”
Pope John Paul added.
Again quoting from the encyclical,
he said every mother should be able
“without hindering her freedom,
without psychological or practical
discrimination, without penalties
from her companions, to dedicate
herself to the care and education of
her children, according to the
differing needs of their ages.”
In the afternoon of Dec. 6 Pope
John Paul made his 45th parish visit in
the Diocese of Rome, going this time
to St. Gaspar Di Bufalo parish in the
Appio-Tuscolano section.
Despite a heavy rainfall, he ordered
the top of his black Mercedes opened
and stood under an umbrella to greet
the crowd outside the parish church,
which was consecrated less than two
months ago.
, , /
Before celebrating Mass, Pope John
Paul met with the parish first
Communion class which gave him a
letter of thanks “that you have placed
yourself at the service of Jesus, even at
the risk of your own life.”
“We wish, brother pope, that
everyone would love you like we love
you,” the letter added.
In his homily, the pope called on
the parish community to become,
especially during Advent, a true
church community animated by love
and Christian hope.
“The day of the Lord will come,
and will come unexpectedly, and it
will be a surprise for each person,” he
said. “Therefore the problem of
conversion, of being with God, is a
question for every day.”
FATHER THOMAS COUGHLIN
A Priest Who Is “One Of Their Own
r>r>
BYTHEA JARVIS
In 1968, a quiet young man from
Malone, New York appeared at the
door of the Trinitarian seminary in
Washington, D. C. He was shy,
nervous and spoke with some
difficulty, as if his words weren’t
quite sure they wanted to be born.
The young man was deaf.
“When I arrived there they didn’t
know what to do with me,” Father
Tom Coughlin recalled recently at
Corpus Christi Church in Stone
Mountain. “They took me to the
foyer and I just stood there, feeling
as if I wasn’t really human.”
Father Coughlin, who now holds
the distinction of being the first deaf
priest ordained in the United States,
credits his Trinitarian tenure to the
subsequent appearance of a
seminarian who was able to “sign” -
the hand-wrought language of the
deaf - and interpret his words and
the words of those around him.
“I knew then that God wanted
me to stay,” he said, accepting the
goodwill and talent of the
seminarian as a “sign of God” for
him.
The sign pointed down a road
that was not all milk and honey,
however. On that memorable
Washington day, Father Coughlin
advanced from a narrow, darkened
foyer to the openness and
officialdom of the order’s vocation
director. The man was quick to size
up his new recruit.
“How tall are you?” the man
asked Tom Coughlin. Wondering to
himself why the learned priest
couldn’t see for himself how tall he
was and what that had to do with his
possible vocation, Father Coughlin
answered, “Five-10.”
The senior Trinitarian seemed
disconcerted but pressed on. “How
old are you?”
“Twenty-one,” was the quick
reply.
This was too much for the
vocation director. “You are deaf.
How can you understand me?” he
finally exploded.
“I read lips,” the young man
before him explained simply,
understanding at last the motive
behind the convoluted questioning.
“After that, the door was open
for me,” Father Coughlin now
asserts. “That priest was my staunch
supporter.”
From that tenuous beginning,
Father Tom Coughlin, at the age of
34, has become one of the
Trinitarian order’s most formidable
assets, traveling 11 months of the
year throughout the United States
and abroad, ministering to the deaf
and allowing them to more fully
experience their Catholic faith.
“Every time I talk (sign) in
retreats, deaf people say ‘I
understand.’ That’s what matters the
most,” claims the itinerant
missioner, who counsels, celebrates
Mass and the sacraments and brings
the presence of Christ’s community
to those who might be experiencing
it for the very first time.
“Deaf people love to see a priest
who is one of their own,” he said
with a smile.
Last weekend, Father Coughlin
brought a pre-holiday renewal to the
halls of Corpus Christi, where deaf
persons of all ages and their friends
and family gathered from around the
archdiocese.
It is from meetings such as these
that the enthusiastic priest derives
his deepest inspiration.
“God reveals himself through the
deaf ministry,” Father Coughlin
explained. “Jesus becomes more
alive and real to me through the
people I meet. ”
One of Father Coughlin’s current
goals is to expand the ministry to the
deaf within the Catholic Church and
to focus particularly on deaf
vocations. He is presently involved in
readying a youth camp, formerly a
resort hotel, near Lake Placid, New
York and hopes to have it open by
summer of 1982.
“It breaks my heart to see a lot of
Catholic deaf leaving the Church to
go to other churches,” he said sadly,
citing the case of a young deaf friend
who had considered the priesthood
and later joined a fundamentalist
Protestant community, claiming
“the Catholic Church cannot save
my soul.”
In the face of increasing influence
by other churches on Catholic deaf
youth, a fact the priest finds “very
disturbing,” Father Coughlin made
Fr. Coughlin
his way to the Vatican for a private
audience with Pope John Paul II in
1979.
The pope urged him to “present
the Word of God in sign language,”
according to the dynamic priest,
who said he was “flabbergasted” by
the Holy Father’s enthusiasm and
encouragement. Pope John Paul also
personally endorsed the youth
camp, an approval that has been a
help in raising funds and support for
the endeavor.
Father Coughlin’s trip to Rome
was one of many stops he has made
around the world.
Perhaps one of his most
memorable was the recent re tracing
(Continued on page 6)
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